摆烂 means deliberately giving up on trying to improve a bad or difficult situation, often with a resigned, joking tone.
休息 leaves the door open: you pause now and return later. 摆烂 closes it. The speaker has stopped protecting the outcome and is willing to let a task, plan, or situation remain bad rather than spend more effort repairing it.
That surrender is why the word often arrives with a laugh or a shrug. Said about yourself, it can turn frustration into self-mockery; said about someone else, it can sound like a judgment that they have abandoned responsibility.
Lei
我把文件关了，空着那两页直接交吧。
Wǒ bǎ wénjiàn guān le, kòngzhe nà liǎng yè zhíjiē jiāo ba.
“I closed the file. Let us just submit it with those two pages blank.”
Ning
明早还有一小时，我们至少能补个结论。
Míngzǎo hái yǒu yì ge xiǎoshí, wǒmen zhìshǎo néng bǔ ge jiélùn.
“We still have an hour tomorrow morning; we can at least add a conclusion.”
Lei
不补了，我今晚就想摆烂。
Bù bǔ le, wǒ jīnwǎn jiù xiǎng bǎilàn.
“I am not adding anything. Tonight I just want to give up.”
Ning
那我先列三个要点，你只把最后一段写完，行吗？
Nà wǒ xiān liè sān ge yàodiǎn, nǐ zhǐ bǎ zuìhòu yí duàn xiě wán, xíng ma?
“Then I will list three key points, and you only finish the last paragraph. Okay?”
Lei
行，别的先不动，至少不交空白页。
Xíng, bié de xiān bú dòng, zhìshǎo bù jiāo kòngbái yè.
“Okay. We will leave the rest for now, but at least we will not submit blank pages.”
Lei plans to submit two blank pages and explicitly says he wants to 摆烂. Ning offers a smaller rescue, and Lei agrees to protect the minimum result instead of abandoning it completely.
Friends working on a class assignment